No land beyond
by Tyrannicide
Summary: A Lizardmen rebellion erupted in Bethma, and the Crow Mercenaries Knights army was sent in to reclaim the region. Featuring younger Raven (before Owen's betrayal) and based on a true story (Raven mentioned in many Bethma dungeon clear quotes he used to fight against Lizardmen in the past).
1. Chapter 1

Raven raised his right hand to signal the marching Crow Mercenary Knights to stop and at the same time ordering:

_ Halt! Units, we're resting here for a while. You're free to relax until further notices, please take your time. Owen, you're in charge of the army when I'm away. Corporal Castor, you're in charge of alert duty, report to Owen and I immediately when there's anything suspicious.

Most soldiers proceeded to move to the grassy plot of land on the side of the road and sat there to rest. They were in the outskirt of a small, unremarkable town. The townspeople were going on with their daily lives, some curiously observing and discussing about the army just appeared outside of their settlement.

Raven and some of the Crow Mercenaries went toward the town, entering an area with white fences around it. Raven ordered his soldiers to stand guard at the entrance of that place while he went inside alone.

It was a small memorial zone, with a marble statue of one of the national heroes, and in front of it was a black obeslisk with inscriptions describing the epic battle happened in this area in the past. It was the statue of General Noah, who was most well known for the deeds of conquering a large part of the continent in a string of Velder's wars of aggression to annex more land for the nation, in one of its expansion spheres.

Raven put a bouquet of flowers under the statue's feet and bowed his head to pay his respects to the late military officer. One tear rolled down his left cheek…The hero was one of Raven's most admired leaders in history. Raven had read every book he could find regarding Noah's exploits in the past, and studying with unusual passion the wisdoms of the military leader in lectures taught at the academy.

So when standing before the statue of his idol, he couldn't help but bursting into tears in awe and shame at the same time. Compared to the accomplishments of the late military leader, he felt his record of services was still insignificant compared to the hero. He remembered one of the quote said by the great hero "I'm afraid the generations yet unborn would resent me for not leaving any enemy and land left for them to conquer".

After mourning for a while, Raven prayed for General Noah to bless him in the expedition campaign he was taking part in, saluted and then left to reunite with his men.

* * *

A rebellion had erupted in Bethma, the frontier colony of the nation, unofficially known as "The Periphery" by people living in the core regions of Velder. The situation looked dire and that was the largest uprising in the history of the region. The lizardmen, the native inhabitants of Bethma, had risen against the human settlers at there.

The lizardmen had always believed they were the rightful owners of the region and only reluctantly agreed to accept human colonists because they had no other choice, after they lost battles with humans in the past. Under the peace treaty, they had to share the region with humans, and having to pay annual tributes to the Velder court.

For a long time they felt they had been oppressed and exploited, straining to gather enough to pay the tribute. The tribute was a way for Velder court to remind the confederation of lizardmen tribes of their role as a tributary state, extolling wealth and properties for the treasury of Velder, and at the same time deprived the indigenous creatures from accumulating enough wealth and properties so they would perpetually in short of resources for mounting an uprising.

Even so, or perhaps because of such unequal treaty, the lizardmen managed to rebel anyway, seizing the annual tribute they were supposed to pay for Velder. Now they had broken the peace treaty with the humans and resolved to take back the whole Bethma region, attempting to return it to the state before human forces conquered and colonized it.

The local militia forces had already been beaten and disarmed. One army group was sent there to try to wrest the region back from the hands of the lizardmen, and Raven's Crow Mercenary Knights was sent in as the reinforcement for that counter-insurgency force.

According to the latest progress of the war efforts - the force under Captain Lukas had quickly marched straight to the heart of the region in hope of a quick liberation. Reading the letters from the messengers sent by Lukas, Raven was surprised by the progress Lukas's army had been able to make in such a short amount of time, crushing any pitiful resistances the lizardmen had been able to put up in his way, and was already one third of his way to the rescue of Bethma's main human settlement.

Raven felt Lukas should have waited for him and they would be able to support each other in battle. In a letter sent to the fellow captain he mentioned just that, but Lukas's answer was that he was in a hurry to aid Bethma's human village which had been overrun by the lizardmen.

* * *

Raven's army crossed the Liffey river separating between Feita and Bethma by boats. They landed on the riverside of Bethma, behind a fortification complex which including a three-meters-high wooden wall surrounding a medium-sized barrack and a small port on the bank of the river for transporting purposes between two sides of the river. The fortification complex was called Camp Stahlfort.

Stahlfort was the forward operation base of the region for in cases when Velder needed to conduct large military activities in the periphery region of the nation - Bethma. It was the foothold in Bethma, beside the garrison in Bethma's human town, guarding the zone which military force could disembark and transporting supplies from the other side of the river.

Raven saluted with Stahlfort's garrison commanding officer - Colonel Sturm, then read out loud the contents of the scroll describing his mission, authorized by the state.

_Colonel, my name is Raven Cronwell, captain of the Crow Mercenary Knights company. In fealty to His Highness and the Velder court, I hereby announce that we are here for the upcoming offensive of reclaiming Bethma, with me as the commanding officer. In the meantime, we need to make use of the facilities and supplies of Stahlfort for our military activities. Please support us with all we need, this is for the king and country.

_I have understood, captain Cronwell. We will certainly helping you with everything we can muster in order for you to success in this war.

Raven shook hand with the colonel with a smile on his face:

_ It's a honour to have a chance to fight alongside you, colonel.

_ No, the honour is all mine. You're from House Cronwell, right? Your father and I were acquaintances and we had cooperated in occasions...

Raven was used to hearing the similar remarks from many different military men across various echelons of the military's command chains saying along that line when he talked with them in the past. Most of the times he felt like a crippling weight was put on his shoulders, urging him to do his best to live up to the reputation of his adoptive father and his House..

Raven also asked the colonel for the latest news from the frontline under Lukas and his men. Sturm answered with most of the things that Raven had known before, from letters sent back and forth between him and Lukas. But it had been nearly a week since the last letter and they were left in the dark regarding the latest progresses…

* * *

That night, after having arranged for his soldiers to temporarily staying at Stahlfort itself, Raven met up with his close comrades, whom he appointed in positions of power in his army: the second in command, chief strategist and advisor Owen Felford, and the Camp prefect, logistic and budgeting-superintendent Seris.

They were some of his closest friends who had been with him through ups and downs since they graduated from Velder Military academy and begun their career in the military of the nation. Even though Raven outranked Owen and Seris, he hardly saw them as his subordinates but instead as peers, and in the case of Seris, personally Raven also saw her as…

The next day the upper echelons of Crow Mercenary Knights were summoned by Raven to plan for the next steps of their military activities.

_ I suggest we would march to catch up with Lukas's battlegroup. The day of Bethma liberation isn't far anymore. But we need to be quick, and so I suggest we split into three groups, as going together we can only move at the speed of the slowest units in our army. The cavalry detachment would form the tip of our spear, leading the way and would be expected to be the first to rendezvous with Lukas's men. The infantry would follow and consolidate the progress made by the cavalry, and the supply wagons and their escorts, who are the slowest by the way, would be safe to past through the areas which would be clear of enemies by the time they have managed to reach there.

_ Thank you lieutenant Yves. Anyone having different idea than lieutenant Yves here please speak up.

Raven nodded to Yves and turned to ask the remaining of the officers.

The command staffs discussed between each other for a while, but only Owen spoke:

_ I think it would not be wise to let the supplying convoy group going alone. That would expose it to enemy's ambushes. The supply line is already stretched too long and we can't afford to lose those supplies before the next supplying convoy from the home front could be organized and reaching us, given that the convoy itself could reach us at all.

The command staff looking from Owen to Yves awaiting her answer.

_ So you're suggesting that the army going together instead of splitting them? That will slow us down tremendously, and because of that slowness, we would consume more supplies because of the extended duration of the campaign. Trust me, I have considered that ambushing scenario too, I just don't think the lizardmen would be able to carry out an organized and effective ambush. They're just a bunch of primitive shamanic barbarians who never had formal education in warfare anyway.

Owen immediately replied after Yves finished her last sentence:

_ Yes, I admit not splitting our force will make the travel time longer. But it will be much easier to conserve our army and a safer, more surely to success attempt than a reckless blitz which failing in maintaining the supply line could doom the rest of the army and we could face envelopment and at its best, surviving but being pushed back to this side of river before even having a chance to combat the bulk of the opponent's force. That's what I would do if I was the leader of the lizardmen.

_That's just a possibility. If we're quick we can just crush their headquarter in a decapitation strike and forcing them to surrender and winning before the lizardmen even knew they were fighting. Even if the supply convoy was lost, we could still attempt to live off the land by sending foraging teams to gather and hunting for food, for example when we have reached Bethma's human town we could secure supplies from there. The faster we arrive at Bethma settlement, the sooner the humans there would be in safety… Hey, why are you laughing?!

Owen truly bursted into laughter near the end of Yves's speech, and some officers also slightly smiling, while Yves's face was reddened because of a mixture of embarrassment and anxious from their attitudes. Seris leered at Owen, and Raven spoke:

_ Owen, if you have anything to say, just say it frankly. This is an urgent planning session and you should be more constructive.

_ Apologize me, I was just feeling hilarious, when she suggested our army to live off the rocky, barren land of this god-forsaken region by foraging…

* * *

Raven slightly sighed. Owen was close to him and Raven trusted him very much because of his knowledge in military which was a head above most people of the same age. He was talented and rarely failed Raven. But his flip side was that Owen looked down upon and at times could be uncooperative with people whom he considered inferior to himself. Raven felt hesitated to criticize Owen, partly because as scornful and uncooperative as Owen attitudes could be, he was right most of the times.

Feeling it was time to intervene when Owen and Yves were at each other's throats, Raven knocked a wooden stick on the table repeatedly to gather attentions and spoke:

_ Alright everyone. I think both commander Owen and lieutenant Yves here have demonstrated several noteworthy points. There can, however, be room for compromises here. I think we should still split our forces into three, each comprising of a different unit: cavalry, infantry, convoy and escorts. However the infantry and cavalry forces would need to carry an extra amount of supplies by themselves, enough for them to use in three days. Camp prefect Seris, was that viable for the soldiers to carry extra weights and the supplying convoy be manageable?

_ Let me see… Yes, I think we would be able to manage that. When making rations and preparing grass for the horses, would we use the supplies carried by the convoy or the supplies carried by soldiers?

_ Thank you Seris, we would cook and distribute rations from supplies carried by the convoy. So, back to the main subject, thanks to that the convoy will carry less weight which resulted in boosting their speed, and even in unlikely case we lost the convoy, other units would still have enough supplies to sustain themselves for a while, so at that point, we can still choose to safely reverse course or continuing. Anyway, that's my opinion regarding this problem, anyone who disagrees with me is free to speak up their mind.

Raven looked across the officers who were discussing with enthusiasm for a while. Seeing no one having any different idea than what were already proposed, Raven called for open voting to decide. Raven's plan received the most votes and was adopted.

_ Okay this problem is settled. Next we will decide the next subject regarding…

Raven was interrupted by a soldier running into the room and delivering news:

_ Sir, I have urgent news. Sir Lukas's army was defeated and they were retreating toward Stahlford! His army is just ten kilometers from here, please send reinforcements!

Raven was shocked to the core upon learning about that, but managed to maintain a calm facial expressions and ordered:

_ Get me the whole cavalry unit and half of the infantry, mobilizing the ox carts, we would need them to carry the wounded and the dead!

Stahlfort's gate was opened, Raven wasted no time and moving ahead with Crow Mercenaries cavalry, while the infantry and ox carts going behind.

After having traveled a distance with the messenger soldier showing the way, Raven could see the soldiers of Lukas being harassed by an army of lizardmen many times the human force's size.

The cavalry then shifted into galloping speed, and charged at the flank of the lizardmen. The formation of the lizardmen was broken by that decisive charge from the cavalry which they completely didn't expect. Many laying dead and then they were clearly retreating.

_ Wait, captain, don't pursue them!

Raven looked and saw Lukas was shouting to him. He was out of breath from exhaustion, having some minor wounds on his body but nothing too severe:

_ They will surely ambush you if you pursue them…

* * *

After having escorted the remnants of Lukas's army back to Stahlfort, Raven Cronwell and some of his officers talked to Lukas immediately.

_ What is the status of your force, Lukas?

Raven asked. Lukas was silent for a moment, then opened his mouth to answer:

_ Conservative estimation, attrition rate including about fifteen to twenty percents dead, about ten to fifteen percents were captured alive or missing in action, about thirty percents wounded. I have about thirty percents of my troops left fitting for combat at the moment, but some of them need to be issued new weapons.

Crow Mercenaries present there were appalled when learning the horrible fate befalling Lukas's army, and most didn't expect to witness him beaten and having to retreat like that.

_ How was that possible? I thought you was doing very well so far...

Lukas sighed when Raven asked, slowly poured for himself a glass of wine, then drank it all at once. Then suddenly he threw the glass at the ground and breaking it, then spat:

_ The wicked lizards, accursed scalies, sons of a…

Lukas cursed to vent his anxieties, making people around there felt sorry for him. After having done swearing, he began to tell the story:

_We marched as fast as we could. The lizards only put up piecemeal resistances thus far, and we won every encounter. We began to underestimate them. Finally a sizable army of lizards appeared, armed with weapons they confiscated from our garrisons at Bethma. After a brief skirmish they ran and we pursued them. But then I heard the soldier alerted that the supplying wagons were ambushed. We hurried to turn back and rushing to their aid. But the previously fleeing army of lizard then also turned back and charged right at the rear of my army which at that time already turned its back at them, they fought with such efficiency that I could only suspect the lizards had anticipated that very situation.

Lukas grabbed the wine bottle and drank directly from it. One of his subordinate ran to get a new empty glass for him. Then he continued:

_It was chaos, I ordered a portion of my troops to stand the ground and holding back the lizards, while the rest would attempt to save the supplying wagons… When we managed to reach the wagons we were supposed to save, we had already lost more than half of them. The lizardmen there fled right when we arrived. We pursued them, but was ambushed again by more lizards, they hid and rapidly throwing javelins at my troops from two sides of the road, then quickly dispersed into the surroundings. I was terrified and didn't dare to pursue them, fearing that we would be ambushed again. We had a shortage of supplies since that.

Owen made an unnatural ahem sounding sound.

_ That night, after having setup the tents, we rested. But holy moly, they secretly infiltrated our positions, slit the throats of many the sentries who didn't see them coming. We were only alerted after corpses of the killed being found by the troops changing night watch session, and the assassins had blended into the darkness of the night and got away. Things only went further downhill from there...

After having heard the whole process of Lukas's force being thinned bit by bit because of the dodgy lizardmen, until they were forced to retreat, out of supplies, encircled and nearly annihilated, Raven felt worried. Owen Felford was right, again…

Apparently the lizardmen previously had caught all of the messengers sent by Lukas calling for help, that explained of the gap in time when contact with him was lost.

With Lukas's army a spent force, it felt to Crow Mercenaries Knights to shoulder the bulk of the burden of taking back Bethma. The odds were against them. And the enemies were far more intelligent and cunning than most had expected. They had sported a human level of intelligence when conducting warfare. It was genius level when compared to the average lizardmen even.

* * *

The day after Lukas intended to retreat back to Velder and abandoning the mission altogether. He also tried to convince Raven to retreat with him.

_ No no, we will stay and fight.

Raven firmly declined. Lukas continued:

_ It is already lost, we simply don't have enough force. Have you seen my case? Moreover Winter is near. It will be extremely difficult to receive reinforcements and supplies from Velder if we were bogged down. Wait until Spring and we would be back with overwhelming force and would also be easier to receive reinforcements.

Raven explained their situations:

_ We simply can't wait. If we retreat, there is a high chance that Stahlfort will subsequently be wiped out by the rebels and we will lose the last foothold in Bethma. So at that point if they defended from this side of the river, it would form a highly dangerous and easily defensible natural barrier, which would be extremely costly in terms of volume of blood shed needed just to cross it and securing a beachhead for landing forces.

_ What's so precious about this periphery region anyway? This expedition is already very costly and maintaining this dangerous region under Velder is even more costly itself, a deficit spending which central government needs to shell out mountains of ED to balance the budget... Who knows, maybe when we're back, I will appeal to the king to abandon Stahlfort and we would all go back to the fatherland. Overexpansion and deficit spending on military and security is very unhealthy for nations.

_ You have a point. However I say Bethma is worth given another chance. When it became developed in the future, we would see much more money flowing to our coffer and in the long term it would pay for the cost we had invested.

_ Then tell me captain, how would you turn this remote region into some place which can turn a profit? We already demanded heavy annual tributes from the lizards, however we couldn't tax the human settlers too much otherwise many wouldn't be able to make a living or running businesses over there. And choking the lizardmen like what we have done would give them incentives to rebel again, and continue this vicious cycle.

* * *

Temporarily not finding words to answer, Raven looked to Owen for help, signaling him to answer on his behalf. Owen then spoke:

_ Yes, keeping this region may not even turn a big profit by itself, especially since the mining activities already ceased and magic stone rush was over. But not all profits came directly from production activities occurred in this region. For example, it served as a road to connect the main trading hub between Elder region and the eastern part of the nation, between Western Lurensia and Eastern Lurensia. Have you considered the loss of profits from simply not able to travel between the west and the east, beside the trading activities, enormous economic and financial profits from it, including taxes on merchants, it may affect, dare I say, the very integrity of this nation...

Owen lowered his voice into a whisper:

_ Imagine if you can't control Bethma, then we wouldn't be able to travel to the Western part of the continent on foot, and in that case, would embolden the lords controlling the lands of anything to the west of Bethma, allowing them a much more easier time to break away from Velder's grips, and it would make it much harder to deter or suppress a secession movement from anyone controlling the land to the West of Bethma. Grasped it?

_ Very well. Then we will humbly leaving the stage to make place for you to play patriotic heroes... Good luck and farewell.

Lukas shook his head and spoke sarcastically. Raven simply answered dryly:

_ No captain, I order you to stay here.

_ Captain, according to the chain of command, I am the one in charge of this offensive.

_ Not anymore I'm afraid, that was an agreement between you and me, back then you have superior quantity of troops. But now I have more troops than you, I will take charge of this offensive. And with that, I order you and your troops to stay here and support my war efforts until further notices.

* * *

Raven stepped out to the yard of the camp, then walking around to observe the situations. He could see many wounded soldiers had to stay outside of the infirmaries because the inside was crowded. Even the living quarters couldn't provide enough beds for the wounded and the sick. Right now Stahlfort was occupied by three different forces: The place's garrison, Lukas's men and Raven's men, and it simply wasn't designed to accommodate for the concentration of forces of that size.

The morale of Lukas's army was very low after the costly and unexpected defeat, and it even started to affect the other soldiers who were not originated from that army. The mentality of defeatism was spreading over time from soldier to soldier, only exacerbated thanks to rumors that they would abandon this campaign and packing to go back home. Lukas was locking himself in his private quarter and drinking himself into a stupor, trying to forget his angers and griefs, the act itself affected the morale in a negative way. Last night there was even about a dozen of men who tried to desert, they were caught and incarcerated.

Realizing he should act before too late, Raven decided to give a speech before executing any further military activities. He summoned his own soldiers and after a very reluctant captain Lukas agreed, Lukas's soldiers as well, to hear out what Raven had to offer.

When they had gathered, Raven Cronwell requested them to be silent, then he raised his voice and began to speak:

_ My fellow comrades, proud and brave soldiers of our great nation. As you have already known, we're here today to crush the rebellion of the lizardmen race, we're coming to the rescue of our compatriots and bringing back the territory for our fatherland, for the king and country. However, as you have also known, we was dealt a heavy blown. Many lives were lost to the vicious barbarians, we were temporarily pushed back to the bank of this river. But don't panic, everything is not yet lost! You must understand fighting a hundred battles does not mean winning a hundred times…

Raven glanced at the direction of Lukas's men when speaking:

_ I know among you, there are people who harbor thoughts that we could always retreat to the east, as we still have a lot of territory left, the majority of population also living in our core homeland, there would be enough bread to sustain all of us. They believe Bethma is a desert, not worth shedding Velder blood for. Such naïve people. You must know, everything has its cost. Our sacrifices here will be repaid appropriately and we will be remembered, this much I can assure you…

Raven raised his voice and continued with increasing passions:

_ To retreat further east would mean to undo the efforts and wasting the blood shed by our forefathers. And the mentality of easily giving up and accepting retreating to the east, away from the conflict, is very dangerous. The further we keep the enemies away from our homeland, our people, the safer they will be. In this situation, to retreat further only mean to waste ourselves and our fatherland. No, we cannot allow it to happen! Because of that, I request of you, keep carry on fighting, as if there was no more land, no more Velder beyond this Liffey river!

Raven pointed at the direction of the billowing river, the natural barrier separating Feita and Bethma. The noises of the flowing water, waves after waves hitting at the banks of the rivers, were drowned in the deafening cheers of the soldiers who had determined to do their best to give their lives for something greater than oneself.

(To be continued).


	2. Chapter 2

When Raven and Seris entered the mess hall of the barrack, immediately they heard a voice calling for them.

Turned out it was Owen, who was sitting alone at a table next to the window, his right hand holding a woonden tankard filled with beer. Seris and Raven decided to join Owen, they moved to sit at the same table with him.

It was in the evening, the troops were allowed half a day of R&R* time before beginning to get into actions the day after. Soldiers were having dinner, they were given extra rations, snacks and drinks. Here and there were groups of drunk soldiers collectively singing together a song.

_ You look like you're enjoying yourself, Owen.

Seris commented upon Owen who was taking a sip of beer, which he responded by simply nodding.

_ We were looking for you and I figured that we could find you in the mess hall, so we headed here...

Raven began to speak.

_ Captain, I must thank you for your uplifting speech just now, what a _tour de force_ _**_ of rhetoric delivered.

Owen said with a grin on his face while looking at Raven and not even trying to hide his sarcastic tone. Raven was caught off guard because of Owen's sudden remark, he smiled to buy time for thinking of an answer.

_ Ehm… I think the soldier's morale had sunk so low, so as a commander I found it was approriate to motivate them before we getting our hands bloody.

_ Well said and done. May I ask you a question, captain, what is a commander to you?

Owen asked in a trivial tone. Raven was surprised again because of the subject Owen mentioned out of the blue. He wondered was Owen drunk.

The dishes Seris ordered before were brought to the table by a food delivery staff, she began to dig into the porridge dish. Raven also took a hardtack, bit and crunched half of it before finally coming up with a reply:

_ I think a commander… is someone who guides his men to victory and helps them better surviving on the battlefield.

_ Is that so? Interesting. To me, commanders are merely the ones whose main job is telling their men where and when to die. Like, literally "hey Bob, go die over there".

Raven Cronwell was speechless because of Owen's unique interpretation of the subject. He opened his mouth to protest:

_ That's not really true, isn't it?

_ It has been so and will always be so. If you want to become an even better commander you need first to accept that truth without sugarcoating it.

Hearing out Owen's remark left a sour taste in Raven's mouth. That somehow made him forget his hunger which shortly before making Raven felt he could eat a whole horse. He inadvertedly observing around him, seeing his men who at some points in the future needed to get themselves killed in exchange for victories… No, even if it was true, Raven still felt it was horrifying to accept.

Sensing the mood becoming heavy, especially after Raven had lifted the morale of soldiers up, but thanks to Owen the morale of Raven himself was shaken, Seris – who even though was busy eating, still heard out clearly the exchanges between Owen and Raven – decided to speak out in a somewhat angry and impatient tone:

_ For goodness sake Owen! What the hell are you on about? Aren't we in the middle of having dinner? Is this the time for you to spit a thesis against Cronwell, tutoring him even? Remember who's your superior now, Felford!

Seris was one of the few persons who could shut Owen down. He didn't want to admit it, but he was intidimated every time when Seris raised her voices. From that point onward Owen would rather not risk attempting to influence Raven's mind and decisions whenever Seris was around.

While Owen was looking down at the table's surface and thinking, Seris turned to Raven then said:

_ Raven, why haven't you eaten anything? The meals are about to get cold if you don't start eating them soon.

_ I don't feel like eating.

_ Oh come on, who are you, a kid? Open your mouth, say aahhhh…

Seris spoke, and at the same time about to literally spoonfeed Raven with a spoonful of porridge. Owen's skin broke out in goose bumps because of Seris's lovey-dovey dialogues and actions. He only wanted to burst into laughter loudly, but tried his best to supress it, lying face down on the table to hide his face, but his shaking shoulders still betrayed him.

_ Seris, don't… people will see us.

Raven was embarassed, and afraid his subordinates seeing him being spoonfed, Raven had no choice but quickly eating his meals.

* * *

Later that night, the Crow Mercenary Knights Company's command staffs, together with elements of commanding officers from Lukas's army, were summoned to the barrack's war room to discuss the plan.

After a couple of persons having done speaking, it was Owen's turn to demonstrate his own version of the plan:

_ My main point here is simply we need to split our force as soon as possible. As you may have possibly figured out, at the moment Stahlfort is crammed, with three different armies occupying it. That put us at a very disadvantageous stance, and in the event enemies laying siege to it, we would be sitting ducks. I suggest, us Raven's army moving out of Stahlfort, about two miles from here to the north west direction, and we will construct a defensible base with walls, then we occupy and hold that position, right here…

Owen used a stick to point at the map the plot of land where the Crow Mercenary Knights would set up a new base. The terrains there were quite flat, but there was a ridge of rocky hill to the east, and a forest very near it to the North and North West.

Owen continued:

_ By splitting our force and simultaneously occupying two places at the same time, we would have far superior initiative and options in both defend and offense compared to us all continue holing up here. If the enemies attack that new base, the relief troops from Stahlfort will then sally out to help and the enemies will be attacked from two directions. The same thing will happen when enemies choosing to attack Stahlfort, the troops from the base will then move toward Stahlfort and enemies will be sandwitched between the defending force there and Crow Mercenay Knights relief force. Either way by that time the enemies will have already lost the element of surprise, and we can counterattack them using the force coming from the position not under siege…

_ What about the situation when the enemies simultaneously besiege and assault both the positions of the newly built base and Stahlfort, commander…uhm… ah, Felford?

Captain Lukas interrupted Owen and asked with a doubtful voice. Lukas looked like he was in better shape compared to the day before, probably not being drunk helped.

Owen answered Lukas with a somewhat unpleasant expression because he was interrupted:

_ Relax, I was about to mention that very situation. If the enemies attack or besiege both of our positions at the same time, they themselves will have to split their own force, while both defensive position having the advantages provided by fortifications. Stahlfort only needs the force the size a fifth of the total mumber of troops we're having here to occupy and operate its defensive mechanics, more than that will be redundant, and as a result most of the force won't even see combat, unless we open the gate to sally out and meet them on the field face to face, which only serves to negate the advantages fortifications provide us with.

So if the enemies attack both the base and Stahlfort, they will have to deal with a totally larger amount of troops who participate in combat at the same time, in both numbers and percentages, and we can inflict more damage upon them, all compared to the result we will get based on how we're currently positioning our forces. We will see their assaults waste against our walls like waves from the sea below crashing against a cliff!

_ Excellent! I know I can trust you, commander.

Raven openly praising Owen after he had demonstrated his plan.

Owen answered with a mischievous grin:

_ You think so? The plan can even be better than what I already described. We can improvise it if we do this…like this…

After having heard out the improvised portion of the plan from Owen, Raven couldn't help but exclaim:

_ Owen, only you can come up with this viciously cunning ploy. Good, very good!

The plan was adopted, after some small modifications being done to it - stemming from suggestions made by various commanding officers present there…

Suddenly loud sounds of alarms could be heard everywhere. The command staffs were surprised. The alarms annoucing an enemy attack, and the whole base was woken from their sleep.

It was a little chaotic outside, soldiers grabbing weapons and wearing armors then rushing outside without any sense of coherency or coordination….

* * *

After the situation was stabilized and brought under control, 43 men were found dead. The lizardmen lost only about a dozen of their number, the majority of them had safely retreated. Some buildings were torched but the fire was put out in time. The enemies decided to infiltrate in that night when many soldiers were drunk and tired after partying hard when they R&R, so security was much more lax, the troops also became more vulnerable targets than normal.

Raven felt angry because of dead soldiers caused by the lizardmen's daring raid. Again, they had shown themselves to be worthy enemies, not to mention they had still had the upperhand thus far. Raven observed when Corporal Frank Castor, leader of the recon teams, who was gathering the bodies of the perished soldiers and put them together in the backyard. Raven could hear Casor saying something to the corpses:

_ Rest in peace, brothers. I promise tomorrow we will avenge your deaths, tenfold!

In the morning, when the sun had not even risen, the Crow Mercenary Knights company had already departed. They couldn't sleep after the incident last night. The Company rapidly marched to the position the commanding officers had decided before.

When they had arrived, they proceeded to chop down the trees from the forests nearby, then used them as materials to build the base. Siegemaster Lysander directed the building process, resulted in the processes of constructions being executed very quickly and efficiently.

At dusk, Raven met up with Frank to hear his report as planned before. The hair and outfits of the leader of the recon teams having many leaves and small twigs on them – as if he had been lying idly in the bushes the whole day.

_ Captain, I'm here to report the results of my mission. As you have anticipated, I and my men have detected that the lizards did secretly spy on our tree logging and fortification construction projects. We told everyone to ignore the lizards even in the situations when they happended to spot one. Two times a wretched lizard creeped past right in front of the place where I hid but it couldn't spot me.

Raven nodded in acknowledgment and answered:

_ Well done, Corporal. Now relay this news to Commander Felford immediately. Tell him to prepare for the next phase of operation.

Raven sighed in relief. He would be worried if instead the lizardmen ignored the projects being done by his Company.

The constructions were completed after only a day. The four wooden walls and some wooden sentry towers were erected. The tents were set up. Many banners were also flew alongside the walls and on the roofs of towers.

When the sky went dark, Raven ordered the soldiers to put the humanoid shaped decoys - which they had secretly made inside the tents before - at everywhere: inside the sentry towers, in front of and inside of the tents… The decoys were made mostly by straw, they also wore soldier clothes and could even hold weapons.

Then the majority of the Crow Mercenary Knights was ordered to… secretly and silently move out of the base they had just built. The ordinary soldiers were surprised because of that order, but they obeyed and moved out of the base in darkness.

Raven Cronwell instructed the soldiers:

_ Remember to undress your armors and holding them on your hands, otherwise those armors would make noises as you were moving while still wearing them.

* * *

The Crow Mercenary Knights then moved a short distance from the base, and hid behind the rocky ridge located nearby. The soldiers were ordered to wear their armor again, and were told to rest at the same place.

A small portion of soldiers was ordered to stay inside the base, most of them stationed near the center of the base, surrounding a secret underground tunnel – the route which they could escape through.

The underground tunnel was secretly dug when the base was still under construction and the other exit led to half the way toward the direction of the ridge. The tunnel would provide the soldiers inside an escape route, or to the soldiers from the outside that would serve as a way to move to the inside of the base without being seen.

Late at night, suddenly above the base appeared two flaming arrows arched through the dark sky, signaled the base was under attack by the enemies!

The officers quickly roused the men up, the army began to lit their torches, then they were ordered to rush to the direction of the base in a hurry. The cavalry detatchment under Lieutenant Yves de Croix-Rivière was the first to reach the base and surrounded it, guarding the gates of the base.

Then the infantry followed and entered the gates leading to inside the base. They encountered the surprised lizardmen, who entered the base before, only to find it was vacant. Even though being surprised, the lizardmen didn't simply fell into despair and surrendered, instead they decided to put up a desperate resistance.

Many of those lizardmen having very different color compared to the "normal" ones. Their skin was black and white, they were extremely good at stealth, and they combated with much greater effectiveness than the "ordinary" ones.

Raven contemplated that the enemies had mobilized their elite units for this secret base raid attempt. When he turned around a corner, Raven could see a lizardman who was about to burn a pile of wooden crates with a torch. Raven coldly told the lizardman:

_ Please, allow me to help you.

Raven swung his sword, sending an air blade flying fast toward the crates. The shockwave sliced through two crates at once, revealed the content inside them: empty.

The lizardman realized the crates and other containers which it and other lizardmen had burned in this base before were in fact empty or contained nothing of value. The burned containers didn't contain the human's supplies like what the lizarmen initially thought. They were just decoys, and the human's supplies were simply not stored in this base to begin with.

Enraged, the lizardman quickly charged at Raven, and swiftly earned the deserving demise it asked for.

The Crow Mercenary Knights steadily moved together in large groups and taking down the much smaller teams of lizardmen _en masse_. The large group formations made the lizardmen's ambushing and sneak attacking skills became ineffective.

Desperate, the lizardmen who had survived thus far all gathered at one place to make a last stand attempt. They were surrounded by human soldiers with the odds of 6-to-1 against them. The lizardmen threw javelins at soldiers approaching them.

Owen ordered the soldiers to temporarily back down, away from the maximum range of enemy's javelins, but of course still maintaining the encirclement. Then he ordered anyone with a crossbow or bow to aim and shoot at the lizardmen.

The fighting had became target practicing. Many soldiers armed with bows shot fire arrows and the ones with crossbows shot the normal bolts. Both achieved their intended effects: the fire arrows burned enemies and dramatically demoralized them through shocks and pains caused by the combination of fire and arrows.

In contrary to the fire arrows, the bolts shot from crossbows didn't deliver flames, but in the darkness of night, the flying projectiles became near invisible, and so, in unison with the visible fire arrows, the invisible "night bolts" hit the enemies and they couldn't anticipate when would they be hit, which also shocked and demoralized them.

After a large number of them became casualties, not to mention the hopless situation they had found themselves in, the lizardmen finally decided that they had had enough. They threw their weapons away, put their empty hands high up, signaling they wanted to surrender. Raven Cronwell ordered the soldiers to stop firing their projectiles, then taking the surrendered enemies into custody.

* * *

After the fight, the Company only suffered neliglible casualties. It marked the first victory for Raven's army in this war. Even the better, they had beaten the lizardmen in their own game!

The whole thing was basically a plot within a plot. The plan worked based upon the assumption that the enemies would attack that night. The lizardmen had been conducting night raids thus far and there was no reason they wouldn't continue doing that. And what could be a better time to strike than in the same day the enemies just set up their new base – after a long day the humans had exhausted themselves because of the tasks such as materials gathering, materials transporting and constructing, not to mention other preparations to make the base usable.

And the lizardmen did just that, and then they found themselves entrapped, or in another words, getting ambushed by the very persons they tried to ambush. The twist was that whole elaborated base building project was a scheme which mainly served to provoke the lizardmen to attack it at the first place.

After that victory, however, everyone couldn't afford to celebrate for long. Intelligence reported that they had spotted large numbered lizardmen columns approaching. The size of that force was simply too big for either the Crow Mercenary Knights Company or the stationed army at Stahlfort to handle alone.

Even so, this course of action was still already anticipated. After such defeat which resulted in the total loss of the number of lizardmen committed to the raid attempt, they would get angry and bold, itching for a rematch.

Fully aware of the new situation, the Company's command staffs agreed to abandon the newly constructed base, burning the walls, then moved back to Stahlfort and rendezvoused with Colonel Sturm's garrisons and what remained of Captain Lukas's army.

The main army of lizardmen had arrived, the highest number Velder had ever seen since the Bethma lizardmen uprising erupted. They occupied the position opposite to Stahlfort, and stretched into a defensive line so long that it would be impossible to outmaneuver them.

The lizardmen's formation was not only long, but also had depth as well. There was a large amount of reserve units behind the front line.

In total, even after their previous defeat against Crow Mercenary Knights Company, they still outnumbered the human side as least 6-to-1, and that army didn't even include all of the forces the lizardmen had at their disposal, rather it only reflected the number of which they made themselves known thus far.

Raven was fully aware of the situations the human forces were in. The upcoming battle would be a decisive one, which could either turn the tide of the war effort in favor of the Velder side, or the end of this offensive and subsequently Bethma could be lost. The strength of the enemies looked intimidating, however Raven also realized they had thrown away their greatest advantages: they stopped employing the extremely effective guerilla warfare tactics and strategies they had followed thus far, to conduct a pitched, frontal battle against the Velder forces.

Maybe they had lost their patiences, because of their last defeat, they became skeptical of their own guerilla warfare doctrine? Or rather because of having such a huge amount of troops at their disposal, they needed to finish the war as quickly as possible because they simply weren't wealthy enough to feed and paying the wages for that many units in case the war dragged out further?

Either way, whether in guerilla or conventional warfare, Raven Cronwell felt he couldn't afford to underestimate the lizardmen. As what was shown regarding latest lizardmen deployments, there was almost nothing which could lead to the conclusion that the lizardmen were any less capable in conventional warfare than the asymetric warfare they had embraced.

* * *

The next day, the lizardmen sent a delegate - they wanted to discuss some terms. After some discussions, human side agreed to hear them out. Raven, Lukas and some officers, escorted by Yves and 50 horsesmen, agreed to meet the leaders of the lizardmen.

Each side moved to the neutral ground amidst Stahlfort and lizardmen army's position. The lizardmen's commanders had 50 Saurus with them as escorts – the bigger, but dumb as rock cousins of the lizardmen.

First they discussed the term of prisoner exchanging. Turned out that many of Bethma garrisoning troops and Lukas's soldiers were still alive, just that they were kept as prisoners in lizardmen's hands. After negotiations, they agreed upon the exchange rate of 3 lizardmen prisoners for each human prisoners. However Raven didn't have enough lizardmen prisoners to exchange for all of human prisoners. He wanted to postpone the prisoner exhange business to after the upcoming battle.

The lizardmen's leader then offered Raven a truce which they called "Peace with honor": all of Velder forces, including Stahlfort garrisons, would be allowed to retreat back to Velder in safety, then human civilians would be deported back to Velder as well, and Velder would revoke all territory claims it had regarding Bethma, and lastly, Bethma would turn back to be the territory of confederation of lizardmen tribes "like the good old days" – the lizardmen's leader termed it.

Raven Cronwell tried his best to keep his cool and rejected all of those terms. Raven frankly told them: to begin with he simply had no authorization to decide most of the subjects the lizardmen's leader offered. Raven even politely suggested the lizardmen's leaders sending a letter to the monarch of Velder to negotiate those terms.

Lastly they agreed to fight in a set piece battle the day after. The two parties departed back to their own side's positions.

The human troops were already well prepared, whether physically or mentally, for the upcoming battle. Some previously wounded soldiers from Lukas's army were also already healed and could take part in the upcoming clash. Raven's army was eager to fight and they were still excited after their last victory. Meanwhile Lukas' army wanted to settle the score with the lizardmen who had kicked them around last time.

A feast was organized, soldiers were allowed extra rations and snacks. Though this time the amount each allowed to drink was lowered, so that they wouldn't become too drunk and losing stamina for the battle tomorrow, moreover they didn't want a sucessful lizardmen night raid to occur again.

As usual, the commanding officers prepared the plan for the upcoming battle. This time Raven Cronwell came up with a detailed plan he had envisioned. Raven used a map, a stick and miniatures to demonstrate the maneuvers they would perform:

_ My force will be the main fighting force here. Lukas, your men will be the reserve. We will sally out of Stahlfort, to here. Because enemies have the advantage in number, they will form a long line formation, and we wouldn't be able to outflank them because of that. Not only so, we also will have to form a long line to match theirs so that in turn they wouldn't be able to easily outflank us, but our line will be thinner because we have less units.

We will form four lines. Yes, you didn't mishear it, I said four lines. The first line includes all of the cavalry. The second line includes all of the bowmen and crossbowmen. The third line includes all of the skirmishers and light infantry. The fourth line includes all of the heavy infantry. The second and third line will be thinner and looser than the fourth line, with gaps inside each of those lines, so in fact they resemble dashed lines instead of ordinary lines. Can you imagine in your heads what I have just said yet? Captain Lukas, your men will be in charge of forming the reserve, plugging any hole in the fourth line'sformation when the lizardmen finally breaking through them…

Suddenly a soldier came into the room and reported:

_ Sir, the transporting boats have arrived. They're docking on this side of the Liffey river, in the port of Stahlfort.

Raven was delighted upon hearing that news, he smiled and told a nearby commanding officer:

_ Tomorrow morning, before the battle starts, evacuate all of the wounded soldiers using those boats and transporting them across the Liffey and unloading them at the opposite riverside, then tell those boats to return to this riverside of Bethma and wait for my next order.

(To be continued)

* * *

 **Notes:**

*R&R: abbreviation for "rest and recuperation", a military slang. The term is used to denote the time periods in which the soldiers are allowed to rest and free to do their private activities.

** _tour de force_ : French phrase, literally meaning "feat of strength". The phrase is often used to describe an achievement or performance that shows great skill and attracts admiration.

* * *

Hope you enjoy and thanks for reading. I welcome and expect any feedback from you, so please do.

As for the content, initially I intended to cram 2 battles into this chapter, but the chapter became more lengthy than anticipated, so I only managed to fit 1 battle into it. If so then this series has a high chance to have 4 chapters instead of just 3.


	3. Chapter 3

It's been more than 2 months since the last chapter. If you wonder what took me so long, that was because I spent my free time to play the newly released Minecraft update 1.14 instead of writing fanfictions.

* * *

At dawn, the battle began. Stahlfort's main gate swung opened, and the human forces marched out. They moved half a mile forward, then arrayed themselves into formations.

The first line comprised of cavalries, and the only formation which didn't form into a line. Rather they formed into wedge-shaped formations. They were armed with a kite shield, a lance or spear, and a sword or sabre. They were under the command of lieutenant Yves de Croix-Rivière.

The second line included bowmen and crossbowmen, forming a loose formation with gaps inside the line of those soldiers – a dashed line. They were under the command of the Company's ranged troops officer.

The third line included light infantries and skirmishers, also formed into a dashed line with gaps inside it. They specifically aligned their formation so that the parts of the formation with soldiers would be behind the parts with gaps which having no bowmen and crossbowmen in the second line in front of them. The typical skirmisher was armed with several javelins, a small round shield, while each light infantry wielded a melee weapon and also carried a round shield, usually a sword or other medium sized blade weapon. They were led by Corporal Frank Castor.

The fourth line were heavy infantries, formed into a solid, thick line. They were the most heavily armored of foot soldiers, most of them carried an arming sword and a heater shield. The heavy infantries were under the direct command of Captain Raven Cronwell and some other officers.

Behind them was the smaller ally army, led by Captain Lukas. Lukas commanded his own force, acting independently from Raven's army, and was tasked with reinforcing Crow Mercenary Knights Company when needed. He independently arrayed his men into thicker and shorter formations with multiple rows of soldiers each and his cavalries on the left and right flanks of his foot soldiers.

Because of the human forces were split into many parts and lines, it resulted in a side effect of creating a psychological illusion that the human forces were way more numerous than they in actually were.

On the side of lizardmen, generally they formed their army into three parts. Its first part was mainly comprised of newly trained rookies , the second part behind the first part included most of the veterans and armed with high quality weapons they acquired as spoils of war from human force they had defeated, and the third part was their reserves.

* * *

Raven ordered the cavalry to charge first to begin the battle, they were to perform a two pronged attack to strike at the left and right wings of the lizardmen's forward formation. The lizardmen stood the ground, bracing for the incoming charge.

The human ranged troops were also ordered to unleash covering projectile shots, with the soldiers on the left flank shooting at the enemies to their right and the soldiers on the right flank shooting at the enemies to their left. They were ordered to shoot with diagonal angles in relative to where they stood so that the charging cavalries in front of and nearest to them wouldn't block their lines of sight and being hit by friendly fires.

The human cavalries rode forward in disciplined formations, then accelerated into galloping speed when closing up with the lizardmen, using their shields to block the javelins thrown at them by the lizardmen. The cavalries pointed their spears forward and charged with great force and speed, and the lizardmen braced for the upcoming impact while holding their spears tight and pointing them toward the charging horsemen, here and there lizardmen fell because of incoming arrows and crossbow bolts.

The cavalries crashed through the formation of the lizardmen's front line and penetrated it completely. Several lizardmen were hit very hard because of the gigantic impacts resulted in them being sent flying. Some horsemen had also fallen as casualties, either being hit by javelins or being stabbed by the spears. But overall, as expected, the lizardmen's casualties were much higher since they were on the receiving end of a brutal and effectively conducted cavalry charge.

The horsemen, after having carried out the charge successfully and their enemies were still shocked and reeling, they rapidly reverse course and retreated back to the human army's side. Or more accurately, just the horsemen who attacked the left part of lizardmen's formation. The cavalry formations attacking the right wing of the lizardmen retreated late and less smoothly compared to their counterparts who attacked enemy's left wing, as their commander – Yves - was too aggressive and kept on fighting, even though they were already told beforehand to retreat as soon as having done executing their initial charge.

Raven burst into anger upon learning the cavalries under Lieutenant Yves hadn't even begun to retreat yet, he ordered soldiers to blow the horns, signalling the direct command to retreat. Only by then the cavalries began to disengage, but not before the enemies, after having regrouped, attempted to surround and impeding the retreat of the human horsemen. Out the corner of his right eye, Raven could see Owen Felford shook his head to express disappointment.

Raven detached from his men while riding his horse to intercept Yves when she and the cavalries returned. Raven briefly scolded her because of her insubordination, then told her to go on with the plan.

The cavalry force split their force, with 1/3 remained on the battlefield while 2/3 of them then rode toward Stalhford and entered it. There they could be seen embarking on the transporting boats which were waiting for them after having evacuate the wounded and sick soldiers across the Liffey river.

* * *

Meanwhile the lizardmen decided it was their turn to charge and also to deny the human the space to execute another devastating cavalry charge. The first part of the lizardmen's force was ordered to advance and engaging human force.

Owen directed the bowmen and crossbowmen to shoot at the columns of advancing lizardmen, volleys after volleys. A number of lizardmen fell to human's projectiles. When Owen considered the lizardmen were close enough, he ordered the soldiers to stop shooting, instead reloading then aiming and only shoot when ordered:

_ Don't fire 'till you see the whites in their eyes!

Shortly after when the lizardmen were already nearly entered the range they could throw their javelins. Owen shouted:

_ Fire! Loose your arrows!

The crossbowmen immediately fired and the bowmen shot their projectiles.

Raven shouted the next order:

_ Second line, stop shooting and retreat! Third line, charge! Remember to hold on using your javelins and just charge, attack quickly!

Multiple accurate projectiles hit the advancing lizardmen at the same time, disrupted their formation when multiple lizardmen fell. The third line – consisted of skirmishers and light infantries immediately charged through the gaps in the second line and moved quickly to engage the enemies.

The lizardmen were quite surprised by the enemy's action, they thought human skirmishers would as least throwing javelins toward them first and they would exchange javelin throws for a while, but instead they just charged at them. The lizardmen stopped advancing and threw their javelins _en masse_ , which was exactly how they were instructed and trained for before.

Some managed to hit the charging human foot soldiers, however many projectiles were wasted simply because the humans were few in number and they were advancing so fast so the javelins landed on where the human were seconds before.

The javelins would be the most effective when being used against a dense and static or as least slow formations of enemy soldiers, and the lizardmen had exhausted most of their projectiles against the wrong type of targets and that was not exactly the best timing when using them either.

The human skirmishers and light infantries bravely plunged at the more numerous lizardmen, they fought with great ferocity. The light infantries hacked and slashed with their blades, while each skirmisher used one of their own javelins as melee weapon. The melee lasted for a short time until Raven considered the fighting soldiers had used up all of their advantages from the initial momentum and eventually would be at a disadvantage. He ordered:

_ Fourth line, advance quickly! Third line – begin to retreat!

At that point the ranged units had done retreating to behind the heavy infantries. By then it was the heavy infantries's turn to advance, and the skirmishers and light infantries were retreating while fighting. The heavy infantries accelerated when getting near the lizardmen, then they ran faster and crashing at their enemies. The third line soldiers completed their disengage and retreating through the line of their advancing comrades. Raven and Owen this time also advanced and fought together with their heavy infantries, they rode on horseback while striking at the enemies.

While the heavy infantries were meleeing against the enemies, Seris suddenly saw the enemy's Saurus detachment was ordered to advance to reinforce their lizardmen brethren who were at a disadvantage.

Seris ordered the ranged troops to ready their ranged weapons and then shot at the Saurus. Since the Saurus were much taller than the humans and lizardmen, bows and crossbows could shoot at their heads and upper bodies without scaring of accidental friendly fires compared to firing at short, human-sized targets when the targets were blocked with allies troops.

Raven also rode to intercept the big games. He readied his spear then charged at a Saurus with high speed. His spear when hitting the lizardmen arched dangerously as if it was about to break, but it also severely wounded the Saurus, the creature howled in pain and lost balance, and Raven used two of his hands to whack the Saurus with the blade of his spear, then rode forward so that his horse trampled upon the Saurus and finally Raven drove his spear downward to deliver the _coup de grace*_ and finished off the giant creature.

Meanwhile Corporal Frank Castor contemplated it was time, he ordered the skirmishers to throw their javelins at lizardmen. The javelins flew above the heads of the human heavy infantries and landed on the tight formations of their foes.

Being hit from all angles with unexpected human projectiles discharged from behind human meleeing soldiers, the lizardmen's morale was shaken when their casualties were mounting and stamina running low, especially after having already been fighting through four layers of different human soldiers while bolts, arrows and javelins kept raining down upon them.

The fact that humans had been rotating their fighting soldiers in and out so that only a part of their force would have to fight for a while and then fresh troops would be brought in, while the same lizardmen formation had been fighting from the start resulted in them being exhausted. Inevitably, the formation of lizardmen crumbled after their total number had already been greatly depleted, and then some of them routed, then more and more of them also turned their backs to the enemies and ran for their lives…

* * *

When the first wave of lizardmen was crushed and routed, most threw away their remaining weapons when fleeing, Raven ordered the cavalries to pursuit them, and the foot soldiers were told to re-arrange their formations and relaxing for a bit. It was necessary because the the lizardmen had committed the second portion of their force to the battle. Those were the real deal, compared to the rookie troops the human just fought.

Raven observed and could tell they were using human weapons and armaments, as spoils of war they confiscated from defeated humans before. Raven rode to where Lukas stood and asked him:

_ Captain, are those enemies using weapons of your troops?

Lukas observed, frowned and couldn't hide his angry facial expression while mumbling:

_ Blast it! If today I won't crush those animals, then how can I call myself a human anymore?

The cavalries disengaged and returned to behind the human foot soldiers after having done inflicting casualties on routing enemies because the new lizardmen combatants were approaching.

This time Raven Cronwell didn't feel like sending skirmishers to harass and softening enemy's formations, mainly because he was afraid the lizardmen had learned from their lose last time and so the same trick wouldn't work twice.

Instead Raven ordered the heavy infantries to simply advance forward, followed by other units tailing them. The force from two sides were approaching each other, then the force of lizardmen turned their back and ran. The human infantries kept advancing, and then the lizardmen suddenly stopped when they got far away enough and then threw their javelins, then running again when the human infantries were at a near distance to them.

Since the lizardmen's skirmishers didn't wear any armor, they carried much less weights compared to the human heavy infantries, hence resulted in them being able to outpace the pursuing humans, and when they were far enough, stood and threw their javelins at human soldiers.

Raven ordered the soldiers to stop pursuing and moving back. He wanted to lure the lizardmen to pursuit them and then reverse course to close in and engaging their force. The lizardmen then moved forward to close in, intending to throw javelins. Then Raven suddenly ordered the troops to quickly turn back to face enemies and charged at them.

But the lizardmen had already anticipated that scheme, they turned away then ran very quickly and the pursuing soldiers gave chases after them, which disintegrated their own formation in process. Individual lizardman who got far enough began to stand their ground and threw javelins at human soldiers who chased after their running comrades.

Soldiers here and there were hit by javelins and fell, they could hardly caught up with the fleeing lizardmen. Seeing his men in a dangerous situation, Raven ordered them to quickly regroup and retreat in order. But it was probably a little too late. The lizardmen sent in the melee infantries of their own. That was their backbone force, much more well armed compared to their previous skirmishers who threw javelins.

* * *

The lizardmen infantries charged with high speed, and the retreating human could be caught up by them before they had done retreating. In turn Raven scrambled his cavalries, and himself also accompanied them, to charge at the lizardmen who were advancing forward, to buy time for his force's retreating heavy infantries. Then suddenly Raven could hear and then saw another cavalry force also charged the lizardmen in sync with his own force.

They were none other than the horsemen sent by Lukas. Together their combined force passed through the disoriented retreating soldiers and charged at the lizardmen who were pursuing them. The charge was devastating and stopped the charge of lizardmen infantries, by then they were forced to fight against the cavalries instead.

Raven felt thankful for the timely assistance from his ally force. The human heavy infantries had retreated without large number of casualties. The cavalries continued to fight against the lizardmen infantry force while the lizardmen skirmishers behind them threw javelins at the horsemen. Meanwhile on the side of human force Seris, Frank Castor and Owen Felford were frantically reorganizing the formations of foot soldiers.

The fight was evenly matched, no side was having the upper hand but the horsemen, who although fought with great martial prowess and armed to their teeth, but were also outnumbered. Suddenly Raven saw strange and destructive projectiles being unleashed by the lizardmen. The projectiles looked like missiles made of light, and they were aimed at the humans. Contrary to the javelins being thrown by lizardmen, shields and armors seemed to be ineffective against those "light missiles", and soldiers being hit by them would have a high chance of being wounded.

Raven deduced those "light missiles" were made of magic, those projectiles must had been enemy mage's doings. Raven hadn't prepared to deal with situations if enemies had magic users, he felt somewhat panicked because of this possibility which he didn't account for. Raven shouted:

_ Cavalry detachment, disengage and retreat! Now!

The horsemen, both from Raven and Lukas's force, immediately tried to break off from combat and then rapidly fleeing back to behind the human foot solider's newly formed formations. Raven had decided that he wouldn't attempt to send his foot soldiers to chase the enemy skirmishers like his previous blunder move, next time he would send the cavalry instead .

This time the bowmen and crossbowmen were placed in front of the infantries again, but the difference was that the light infantries and skirmishers were behind the heavy infantries. After having exchanged words with Owen and Seris, Raven realized they arrayed soldiers that way because there would be a high chance that the enemies, even the lightly armed skirmishers, this time would choose to charge against human projectile troops and light infantries, instead of standing and hurling javelins. And only heavy infantries would stand a chance against them in melee.

The enemies sent skirmishers first, again. The bowmen and crossbowmen shot at them when they were approaching. Then the enemy's skirmishers accelerated to close the gap with the humans, Raven ordered the cavalry to get ready. The ranged soldiers were ordered to retreat behind the infantries when the enemies got close enough. Then the skirmishers were in javelin throwing range, and they were about to throw their javelins. Then Raven ordered his cavalry to charge. The horsemen pursued the skirmishers, they were able to cut down some enemies until when the lizardmen infantries charged, the horsemen would turn their tails and retreat.

Then the human bowmen and crossbowmen were ordered to stand at their previous positions – in front of heavy infantries. And the lizardmen sent the skirmishers again… This game of tag repeated for two more times, resulted in the lizardmen got exhausted and suffered considerable casualties, while on the human side the loss was negligible.

The third time lizardmen finally changed their course of action. This time they charged with the entire force of the second part of their army, skirmishers led the way, followed by their elite and better equipped infantries, and lastly behind them were their magic casting lizardmen.

When the enemies got close enough, human ranged soldiers retreated to behind the human skirmishers who in turn were behind the heavy infantries. The lizardmen skirmishers were almost out of javelins, they just charged the human heavy infantries with their last javelin as melee weapon. Needless to say the heavy infantries cut down vast amount of the enemy's skirmishers with contemptuous ease…

But the "cannon fodder" lizardmen skirmishers did tire out the human heavy infantries somewhat before their own infantries entered combat. By then the lizardmen infantries had the superior numerical and stamina when they had finally engaged the fewer in number and tired human heavy infantries. Worse still, the armor-piercing lizardmen's magic projectiles were being cast by the lizardmen's magic users. They hurled their projectiles from behind the lizardmen melee infantries, and the advantages of better armors equipped by human force were almost negated when hit by those magic projectiles.

* * *

The battle continued to rage on, with both sides were embroiled in a symmetrical struggle on equal terms for the first time since the start of the battle. Front line melee infantries clashed, behind them troops throwing or shooting projectiles or hurling spells over the heads of their comrades to hit infantries on the enemy's sides.

However as time passed, the human side was at a disadvantage and gradually losing grounds to the lizardmen, the infantries were tired after having fought against enemies who outnumbered them many times over, the human skirmishers had just exhausted the stockpile of javelin projectiles they brought with them, and many resorted to using melee weapons picked up from the ground which used to belong to enemies or friends who fell in battle before.

Here and there occasionally when the line of heavy infantries was penetrated, the human skirmishers and light infantries ran forward to plug the breach where the lizardmen managed to force themselves through. Crossbowmen and bowmen were also almost out of bolts and arrows but as least so far they had managed to inflict large amount of casualties upon the Saurus and kept them at bay.

The brawl continued until the lizardmen managed to achieve a major breakthrough: instead of firing at will like before, all of the lizardmen mages began to concentrate their magical projectiles to rain down at a vulnerable point on the line of human foot soldier's formation. Realizing what the lizardmen were attempting to do, Raven looked around and saw that he had almost no reserve force left to deploy. All of the heavy infantries, some of the cavalries, most of the light infantries and skirmishers were already locked in the thick of melee combat.

At this time if the human soldier's formation was penetrated, the whole force would be at a great disadvantage and could lead to the total collapse of the entire formation. At this point he could only rely on the remaining of his cavalries which he hadn't sent away toward Stahlfort before to attempt to plug the hole on the formation and maybe considering a tactical retreat of the whole army. However that was what Raven would do only if the Crow Mercenary Knights Company was fighting alone, and they clearly were not…

As the lizardmen were still concentrating at one point in Raven's army formation to crack through it, Raven could hear and then saw his ally force – Captain Lukas'a army began to march forward quickly. Raven Cronwell and Seris began to rush to aid his men at the spot on the line where lizardmen were attempting to breakthrough, they fought and felled many lizardmen infantries there while dodging magical projectiles from lizardmen's mages.

And then it was inevitable that the lizardmen would be able to penetrate through that spot anyway. Seris and Raven retreated several steps and then turned back again to face the enemies to fight them back. Meanwhile Corporal Frank Castor was rallying the panicked soldiers to keep fighting in the wake of their formation being penetrated for the first time. The soldiers still held the line, partly thanks to the fact that to many of them, when recounting their whole careers, that was not the only time they were in that situation, there were times when they had been through worse but still managed to win anyway.

Nevertheless it couldn't be denied that Raven's army was in a critical situation. A breach in the formation was already bad, there was nothing which ensured that the enemies wouldn't be able to create more holes in human's formation. Normally the wisest thing to do was retreating,but this time they didn't have to.

Lukas had decided it was time to commit his whole force to the battle. Lukas himself, together with the relief force under his command, shouted loudly at the tops of their lungs and charged forward, reinforcing and bolstering the line of Raven's infantries. A sizable portion of Lukas's infantries began to surround the breach in Raven's army formation where the lizardmen were pouring through. The lizardmen who charged through the breach suddenly found themselves being surrounded from three sides which resulted in them being cut down very quickly. They panicked and many turned their back to run and shortly later the breach in the formation was filled by reinforcements.

At this point the ranged soldiers had ran out of bolts and arrows, and the battle had progressed to the point that they were no longer useful. Raven ordered them to retreat while carrying wounded soldiers together with them back to Stahlfort. The ranged troops then immediately packed up and began to withdraw while getting the wounded soldiers back toward the fortifications as ordered.

The stalemate resumed, but the lizardmen still had the numerical and stamina superiority. The reserve force of lizardmen army was still intact and hadn't seen combat the whole time, while the human side had already mobilized the last of their reserve force just to temporarily evening the odds.

* * *

And as expected, the lizardmen leaders had finally committed the whole reserve force of lizardmen to join the battle, joining the lizardmen who were already fighting. The reserve force of lizardmen composed mostly of their rank-and-file troops and new recruits, so individually they were troops of lower quality and not as well equipped as the second portion of lizardmen army which had been fighting. But still these reinforcements were not to be underestimated, as the elite lizardmen from the second portion of lizardmen who were fighting at that time were still numerous and showing no intention to back down.

At that point on the battlefield the lizardmen outnumbered the humans about 3.5 to 1. Time was in the lizardmen's favors, and if that turned into a battle of attrition then human would have a high chance to lose it. Raven glanced at the faraway landscape behind the lizardmen's force, as if he was expecting something, yet there was hardly anything left there after almost all of the lizardmen had already moved forward…

Times and again the lizardmen attempted to create holes in human's formation, but so far the commanders from human side managed to shift their troops to counterattack and pushing the lizardmen back. Over time the human formations were forced to give ground again and again, they traded territories for enemy's casualties.

The right wing of human joint formation of two armies was in a dangerous state of being overrun, but there was no reserve force left to mobilize, and if any of the wing collapsed, the whole human force might face envelopment and their only retreat route could even be blocked.

However even though Raven was aware that the right wing of the joint formation of human armies was in critical situation, Raven's eyes didn't concentrate on that direction. Again, for some reasons Raven Cronwell decided to look straight ahead, at the line of lizardmen's formations, or more accurately, behind them. There seemed to be nothing worth noticing at where Raven was looking at…

…Except that right there some minutes before was just simply a vacant plot of land, but by then there were a lot of mobile entities which filled up that place. Those moving entities were cavalries, led by Lieutenant Yves de Croix-Rivière, who were galloping at high speed quickly toward the battle where the lizardmen were fighting against the humans. Those troops were the force of 2/3 of Crow Mercenary Knight Company's cavalries which Raven had sent away before, after the initial _en masse_ cavalry charge at the start of the battle. They were ordered to perform a complex maneuver to get behind the lizardmen and then striking from that angle.

The plan would have a high chance to fail if lizardmen hadn't committed all of their forces into the conflict at the frontline, as they could use their reserve force to attempt to intercept and block the cavalries which arrived behind them, therefore foiling the plan to strike at the lizardmen's formation at the rear and combining with the other human force to envelop and encircle all of lizardmen at once.

Some lizardmen saw the Company's cavalries arriving behind them, they were shocked and didn't know how to react. In the history of warfare, military forces – even the trained and experienced ones - usually couldn't react or deal with situations when they were encircled and attacked from multiple directions, and the situation of suddenly being hit at the rear of the formation was out of question.

It was a total surprise for the lizardmen and their leaders, because since the front line was wide, that left no ground for flanking or encircle maneuver, as least in their calculations. So how could the human cavalries arrived behind them without being seen, what path did they took?

The answer was that they didn't cross the battlefield on ground, they were delivered by transporting boats. It was a maneuver planned by humans from the start, the cavalries after the initial charge at the beginning of the battle split with the main force, 2/3 of the cavalries were seen retreating toward Stahlfort. What they actually did were embarking on the transporting boats and then the boats would ferry the cavalries along the river. Then the cavalries disembarked on land again, a distance behind the lizardmen's positions. Then they moved closer toward the battlefield, observing from a distance away and waited for the right time to strike.

And when seeing the lizardmen had already committed all of their troops to the frontline, they began to rapidly move and then charged at the rear of lizardmen's formation. Lizardmen were struck by a sudden and devastating massive charge of human cavalries, from behind. The lizardmen magicians were also specifically hunted down and singled out for destruction, they were helplessly being slaughtered when possessing near zero close combat capability.

Many lizardmen were dead from the lethal charge and then the subsequent onslaught by the cavalries. Their formations and coherency were nearly completely broken down and their morale wavered and on the brink of collapsing. Some lizardmen tried to flee, but they couldn't outrun the chasing horses and being cut down.

Being encircled from both sides and with no escape route, and after so many of their comrades either tried to flee or surrendered, the lizardmen resisted for a while then they began to surrender, one after another.

* * *

The human force had won the battle after having broken the back of lizardmen's army. The battle resulted in huge amount of lizardmen being captured alive as well, after the decisive charge initiated by the cavalries of Crow Mercenary Knight Company. Only some of the lizardmen escaped that day, mostly the remnants of the lizardmen who took part in the first wave assault and then deserted after themselves having been being defeated before…

The victorious human forces began to eagerly running toward the camps of the lizardmen to loot and sacking for spoils of war. Even though Raven Cronwell was afraid of the scenario when another force of the enemy would show up, for example the routed enemies would attempt to regroup and suddenly returning to attack when they were least expected – as least that was what Raven would do had he was a leader of lizardmen in that case. Then Raven shook his head and thought inside his mind that maybe that would be a bit paranoid. They had just won such a hard fought and epic battle, he didn't want to disrupt the barbaric joys of his soldiers.

Raven hurried the non combatants who assisted the Crow Mercenary Knights Company to gather the human corpses as quick as possible because…

Many crows were already flying on the air above the battlefield, and yet more of them were coming from nearby forests, they were noisy as all hell broke loose. Only some of the crows descended upon the corpses of the dead and began to dig in, because they were afraid of humans nearby. As the last of the human corpses were packed on the ox carts to be pulled toward the mass graves which were just dug, almost all of the crows descended upon bodies of the lizardmen which were left at where they fell in combat.

It was truly a feast for crows!

* * *

 **Note:**

 _*Coup de grace:_ French word for the death blow/mercy kill.


End file.
